The SpotLight Kenya

Shampoos                               The term “shampoo” has it origin from Hindustani language (‘Hindustani people’ or ‘people of Hindusta’n also known as ‘Hindi people’ or ‘Hindavi’ are panethnicity primarily living in the Hindi belt region of India, which is located in the Gangetic plain of India between the Himalayas and Vindhyas)  meaning to ‘squeeze’. Originally shampoos were of soaps or a mixture of soaps, while synthetic detergents were used majorly in commercial shampoos. Shampoo is a preparation of surfactant(surface active material) in a suitable forth either in liquid, or powder when applied as specified conditions is capable of removing surface grease, dirt and skin debris from the hair, shaft and scalp without affecting hair, scalp or the health of the user. Shampoo types and forms Shampoos are classified according ...

Orbital ooh! It is like orbit and orbit is something round ooh! Not round but spherical. Sometime differentiating round and sphere can be like climbing a steep mountain to majority of human kind. Back to business, it will be very crucial to understand what a shell is and the number of shells which are possible in an atom.   Shell is a spherical space around a nucleus (nucleus of an atom consists of protons and neutrons, except for one of the hydrogen isotopes (protium), which has a nucleus consisting of one proton. The nucleus has a positive electric charge, the size of which depends upon the number of protons it contains. The nucleus provides the mass of an atom); it contains extra-nuclear electrons with energy levels of that shell. An atom possesses different shells of increasing radii around its nucleus. The radius of a shell is 100 000 times greater than the radius of the nucleus. Ok now let’s focus on these shells of atom. The first one is; K-shell is the innermost at...

Chemistry and Biochemistry Academy : Unusual behaviour of Lithium aluminium hydride : Conversion of amides into amines by reduction (RCONH 2 =RCH2NH 2 ) Amides are organic compounds with chemical formula RCONH 2 in ...

Chemistry and Biochemistry Academy : How to make explosive (PETN) (for industrial purpo... : Explosives are materials (chemicals/nuclear ) that can be initiated to undergo very rapid self-propagating decomposition that results...

Conversion of amides into amines by reduction (RCONH 2 =RCH2NH 2 ) Amides are organic compounds with chemical formula RCONH 2 in which R refers to the hydrocarbon chainand can either be aromatic or aliphatic. Therefore amides are derivative of carboxylic acids where hydroxyl ( - OH) is replaced by amino group (-NH 2 )   or they are organic compounds in which amino groups are attached to carbonyl groups of carboxylic acids or they are conjugate base of anion(the anion H 2 N - ) or organic amine(an anion R 2 N - ). They are reduced by LiAlH 4 / lithium aluminum hydride (reduction by hydride transfer { - H}), usually LiAlH 4 is a powerful reducing agent and reduces ketones, esters, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, nitriles and amide quite rapidly and on hydrolysis gives alcohol as the product. In this case it is different; LiAlH 4 reduces amide to amine instead of alcohol. Reduction is the gain of electron and decreasing of oxidation number or it is a chemical reaction in w...

Explosives are materials (chemicals/nuclear ) that can be initiated to undergo very rapid self-propagating decomposition that results in the formation of more stable materials with liberation of heat and large amount of gases. This heat can be tapped and use in industrial applications e.g generation of s team that can be used to turn turbines which can either generates electricity or do some mechanical works (in machines like mills e.t.c). Pentaerythritoltetranitrate is one of secondary explosives. It is an explosive booster/high explosive.   Explosive boosters are made of materials which are insensitive to mechanical shocks and flames but explode with great violence when set off by explosive shock. The explosion is achieved by detonating small amount of primary explosives in contact with high explosives like lead azide and lead styphnate which are highly susceptible to initiation.  Pentaerythritoltetranitrate can be synthesized from methanal/formaldehy...

Quitters of cigarette smoking usually find it very stressful during the withdrawal period. This is always takes period of 2-3 weeks when they stop smoking. But do you know that these people can overcome this challenge by just eating banana which has great benefits to human life? Let’s understand what banana contains which is responsible for the same effect as nicotine in tobacco.  Banana contains tryptophan, which is the nonessential amino acid with aromatic side chain. Nonessential amino acids are amino acids that cannot be synthesized in our bodies but can be obtained from our diets. Tryptophan's structure consists of hydrophobic R-chain group (side chain) and this is called indolering (aromatic ring) which gives rise to nicotinate (niacin), indoleacetate, and serotonin.  This means that  tryptophan is a precursor in the synthesis of serotonin which is the contributor to the same effects of nicotine in our body. Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) ...